From the standpoints of health, economics and ethics, animal slaughter and meat-eating are detrimental to human society.

Health

Although meat is certainly a source of concentrated protein it is a very poor source of other food elements like minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates. In addition, eating flesh from the cow or any other animal is detrimental to the health of human beings for many reasons. For example, if a human, who has a much longer colon than the carnivorous animals, eats flesh, the following problems will ensue:

1. Intestinal bacteria in the long bowel will change from fermentative to putrefactive, thus causing poisons to be absorbed into the bloodstream. These poisons need to be eliminated, so energy is diverted from other essential bodily functions, including thinking.

2. The natural synthesis of vitamin B12 will be inhibited, possibly leading to anemia.

3. Animal toxins will tend to disrupt the proper metabolism of carbohydrates. This can cause diabetes.

4. Nonnutritive substances resulting from the digestion of animal flesh tend to be carcinogenic (cancer-inducing) irritants.

The minimum daily requirement of protein, which nutritional experts calculate to be between seventy and ninety grams, is easily achieved with dairy products and foods from the vegetable kingdom. Protein, is found in ample quantity in milk, cheese, yogurt, whole wheat, corn, many varieties of nuts and beans, and some vegetables. Thus vegetables, fruits, grains and dairy products provide a perfectly balanced diet. Consuming animal flesh, on the other hand, results in excess protein, which produces liver ailments, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries.

The Energy is Flowing for the new Prabhupada Focused Self Sufficient Farm Community & Goloka Cow Sanctuary. Big Island, Hawaii. All are Welcome

“Simple Living, High Thinking”

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada wanted to establish self-sufficient farm communities and cow sanctuaries all over the world. But where is that farm which is focused purely on Prabhupada?

Prabhupada left this world in 1977, but his compassionate divine vibration is eternally alive.

He knew living conditions would become harsh, the food, land, air & water would become polluted, we would suffer with so many diseases, we can’t trust the government, oil would become scarce, it’s very hard to continue a materialistic way of life without having to pay for it with so much suffering and hardship for ourselves, other species and mother earth and that many people would lose their jobs due do economic collapse.

Prabhupada knew we would need to create safe, self-sufficient peaceful places to live with nature, depending less on industry, materialism and instant gratifying city life…

Prabhupada teaches us how to create that peaceful place where ever we are.

Prabhupada teaches us the way to sustain a peaceful, clean & pure lifestyle, within & without. Consciousness! Where are you? Prabhupada shows us the way, if we will simply come together and hear him. Focused on Prabhupada, he will guide us and together we will help each other gently towards a more simple and self-sustainable way of living. Krishna consciousness community.

If a family keeps a cow and calf and has a few acres of land, a vegetarian diet is easily sustainable. I know a family in Colorado whose cow gives nine gallons of milk a day and she lactates for four to five years. They have enough land for the cow and her offspring to graze on and even with several months of winter they can easily maintain their cow. (see CFC News July 2010).

If you mean to ask will protecting a family cow produce enough income to maintain herself and provide for a family of five people with urban habits, then no, it won’t.
In an agrarian setting cows actually give more than they take.

However, when one tries to produce milk for commercial purposes and requires expensive farming equipment (tractors, bailers, combines, silos etc.) has to pay outrageous prices for veterinary aid, purchase homogenization and pasteurization equipment, conveyances to transport the milk to urban areas and so on, sustainability becomes a problem. In short, what makes cow protection unsustainable today is urbanization and consumerism.

Remove these two from the picture and you have the formula for a peaceful existence.
A large herd is sustainable in an agrarian community with common pasturing grounds and bordering forests, not otherwise.

I have visited village communities in India which still resemble the ancient Vedic model where every household hosts a few cows and a few cowherd men or women take the collective herd out to pasture daily leaving the calves behind. At the end of each day there is a celebration when the cows return with their stomachs full and many with udders full as well. The only investment is the time it takes for a few people to accompany the cows in their daily wanderings.

The cows are milked; the calves are fed; the milk boiled on a cow dung fire; hot milk is served; the remainder left overnight to become yoghurt; which is later churned to make butter; and the nourishing buttermilk is offered to unexpected guests and whoever else. I have never witnessed a more joyous existence. But the villagers I have examined pay their bills by farming, not selling dairy products.

“Excess males and unproductive females” are terms used by commercial dairy farmers that have nothing to do with cow protection but everything to do with cow exploitation. Urbanization and mechanization have rendered bulls unemployed whereas in the Vedic model the bull calves are valued more than the females as there is always ploughing and draught work to be done.

Since their dung and urine have numerous practical uses in agrarian life, and since Vedantists consider tending cows and pleasing them to be an activity which pleases God, real cow protectors always consider cows and bulls productive even when dry, retired or diseased.

We do not encourage commercial dairy farming or any type of attempt to make living from selling cow products. A profit orientation invariably leads to decisions which sell the cow short.

The term “humane culling” is an oxymoron at best or a euphemism at worst. If you are humane, how can you take the life of a creature who has not agreed to give it up?
Why not call it what it is?- – killing to increase profit. People who coin such terms do so to minimize the guilt resulting from acting against their conscience.

Other examples are “terminating the pregnancy” instead of saying “killing the child in the womb”; or “pacifying the enemy” instead of bombing the hell out of them; and so on. When the sinister want to manipulate others to perform horrible and unbeneficial acts which may disturb their conscience, they employ such devices to facilitate the phenomenon of self-deception.

Creation and employment of such devices indicates malignant narcissism.
In an agrarian society cows have a wonderful effect on the ecology. Their dung is known to be the best fertilizer and their hooves and horns have a nourishing effect on the earth.
You may find Rudolf Steiner’s (the founder of biodynamics) work interesting. A Google search will yield much on his work. Since in the Vedic formula, ahimsa is the first principle, I think a vegan diet is better than one including commercial dairy products obtained by violence. But the best and most wholesome diet is one which includes milk obtained from a loving cow who is treated like one’s own mother.

<Lord Krishna’s Example
To teach by example, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and Lord Balaram show us when They descend into this world, how important is to protect, love and serve Cows and Bulls. Krishna is known as Gopala (protector of the Cows) or Govinda (one who gives pleasure to the Cows). Lord Balaram represents plowing the land for agriculture and therefore always carries a plow in His hand, whereas Krishna tends Cows and therefore carries a flute in His hand. Thus the two brothers represent krisi-raksha (protecting Bulls by engaging them in farming) and go-raksha (protecting the Cows). 10.5.20 Purport
“Offering respect to the Cows will help the devotee to diminish the reactions to his past sinful activities” (Skanda Purana)

Vrindavan’s Cows are constant remainders of Krishna’s ecstatic Cow herding lilas (pastimes). By serving the Cows one receives tremendous spiritual benefit. Feeding grains to the Cows, offering puja, or simply a scratch under the neck will please these peaceful personalities and attracts the attention of Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Govinda. The Gautamiya Tantra says, “One should gently scratch the body of a Cow, offer her a mouthful of green grass and reverentially circumambulate her. If Cows are maintained nicely and comfortably, Lord Gopal will be pleased.”